Joe Surf: Huntington’s Griffin Foy dazzles at NSSA state meet

The National Scholastic Surfing Association held its Interscholastic State Championships this month at Church’s at San Onofre, with plenty of area surfers performing well.

None, though, did better than Huntington Beach’s Griffin Foy, who won the state title in the high school boys shortboard competition. Griffin is a home-schooled student who was surfing for Huntington Beach High School.

“He’s a very special young rider,” Huntington Beach High surf coach Andy Verdone said. “He might be the next Kanoa (Igarashi), he might be the next Brett (Simpson). He had a 9.6 in the (NSSA) final that people are still talking about. He’s very special, very determined, very competitive.”

Though he’s just 15, Griffin has been on the surfing scene awhile, competing in the NSSA and Western Surfing Assn. Earlier this month, he competed in a World Surf League Juniors event, the Ron Jon Vans Junior Pro in Cocoa Beach, Fla.

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FOR THE RECORD

April 1, 5:51 p.m.: A photo that accompanied an earlier version of this post identified the surfer pictured as Griffin Foy. The photo was of another surfer.

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But winning the NSSA state title was special, he said, because he had never won a contest at Church’s before and hadn’t won many NSSA contests. The 9.6 score, though, changed all that.

“It was a good set wave,” Griffin said this week after returning from a trip to Hawaii. “It came in the first two minutes of the heat, and I got three turns all in a row. But I didn’t know my score until after the heat was over.”

The ocean seemed to go flat after his 9.6, and Griffin still needed a second scoring wave. He finally got one in the final two minutes, scoring 7.5 to win.

Griffin said he looks up to pro surfers Kelly Slater and Filipe Toledo. In fact, there’s a video on YouTube of him surfing with Slater at Trestles when Griffin was 11.

Griffin said he likes Toledo because he “surfs with so much variety.”

Griffin doesn’t hold back when talking about his goals: “I want to win a Junior Pro event before I age out, surf in the QS (Qualifying Series) and qualify for the tour (World Championship Tour), and eventually win a world championship.”

Following are the high school varsity results for the NSSA state championships:

Team standings

1. Carlsbad, 95; 2. Dana Hills, 91; 3. San Clemente, 86; 4. Huntington Beach, 78; 5. San Dieguito, 62; 6. Edison, 61; 7. Newport Harbor, 42; 8. Point Loma, 33; 9. Mira Costa, 28; 10. Marina, 19.

Boys’ shortboard

1. Griffin Foy, Huntington Beach; 2. Lucas Taub, Dana Hills; 3. Curran Dand, San Clemente; 4. Ethan Grant, Carlsbad; 5. Ryan Salazar, Huntington Beach; 6. Connor Dawson, Edison.

Girls’ shortboard

1. Bethany Zelasko, Dana Hills; 2. Sidney Tisdel, Carlsbad; 3. Malia Faramarzi, San Dieguito; 4. Peyton Slater, Carlsbad; 5. Juli Hernandez, Edison; 6. Kyra Williams, Mira Costa.

Longboard

Trevor Anderberg, San Dieguito; 2. Nick Melanson, San Clemente; 3. Ben Goldstein, Carlsbad; 4. Jeremy Guilmette, Huntington Beach; 5. Ian Gottron, Dana Hills; 6. Brendan Snow, Edison.

*Keeping up with Kanoa

Huntington Beach’s Kanoa Igarashi started well in the second contest of the season in the World Surf League’s World Championship Tour — the Rip Curl Pro Bells Beach in Australia — winning his Round 1 heat against Hawaii’s Dusty Payne and Brazil’s Italo Ferreira.

Winning the Round 1 heat allowed Igarashi to skip past Round 2 and go directly to Round 3, where he matched up against Aussie Matt Wilkinson, who was coming off a WCT victory a couple of weeks earlier at the Quiksilver Pro Gold Coast.

Wilkinson got some good waves early in the heat, scoring a 7.67 and 7.80, putting the pressure on 18-year-old Igarashi for the rest of the heat. Igarashi managed only a 4.27 and 4.10 on his two scoring waves and was eliminated.

After his equal-ninth place in the first WCT contest of the season, Igarashi finished equal-13th at Bells Beach.

The WCT will remain in Australia for the third tour contest, the Drug Aware Margaret River Pro starting April 8.

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Court in session

Santa Ana’s Courtney Conlogue, coming off her second-place finish in the first WCT women’s contest of the season in the Roxy Pro Gold Coast, kept it going in the Rip Curl Women’s Bells Beach.

Conlogue won her Round 1 heat over Aussie surfers Laura Enever and Nikki Van Dijk. Conlogue scored a 9.17 on one of her waves, the best scoring wave by any surfer in Round 1.

With the heat win, Conlogue advanced to Round 3, where she earned another heat win, beating Van Dijk and Hawaii’s Tatiana Weston-Webb to move into the quarterfinals.